Amazing readers mean Ars is hiring, again, after astounding 2011

Ars Technica continues to grow and now reaches 10 million readers a month— …

2011 was the biggest, busiest year at Ars Technica, and 2012 is poised to be even bigger. We're in the middle of a massive hiring spree spurred by considerable investment from Condé Nast (see below and spread the word). We're also building some really cool additions to the site that we are just a few months away from unveiling. Traffic is at an all-time high, and even going into our 14th year, we've yet to have two quarters of down traffic. Our subscription package, Ars Premier, has never been more popular, and you continue to inspire us with your feedback and loyalty as readers.

In what follows, we've got job postings, a yearly recap, and some demographics data. The jobs are at the end, and they're just the beginning of our machinations; later this spring we'll be looking for more folks to join the Ars team. We've already hired three new people you'll be meeting in the coming weeks.

Stronger than ever

October 2011, our best month ever, saw Ars serve 80 million pageviews total across the main site, its forums, and the shockingly large "mobile" site which at present only serves phones (and did 5 million pageviews alone). I'm proud to say we did it without any freebies: no pals at search engines juicing RSS, no insiders at social networks juicing sign-ups, no syndication deals, no paid traffic. Just 100 percent pure, organic readership, the way it has been since 1998. That's an absolute rarity in this business, and the entire family of Ars Technica thanks you, the readers, for being so amazing to us.

We counted more than 10 million unique readers per month in 2011, and they came from all over the globe. New York City surged into first place for the first time, and we grew our audiences in London (now our #2 city), Toronto (#3), and Sydney (#7). We also showed up for the first time in remote places like North Korea (seriously), Vatican City, and the Marshall Islands. Here's a look at our footprint as reported by Google Analytics:

We've also come to learn that Ars is read by some amazing people in amazing places. Take, for instance, the White House, where we're told that Ars Technica reports are frequently circulated among Administration staff. Or the Australian Ministry of Defense, which subscribes to our content for internal use. While having millions and millions of readers is awesome, we love hearing from our readers in high places. Now, if only someone told me that Rush drummer Neil Peart reads Ars, I would feel more complete.

Revenue-wise, Ars Technica is strong, and 2011 was another record-setting year for us thanks to the very hard work of Howard Mittman, Keith Grossman, Andrew Maiorana, Chauncy Kerr, Tessa Miller, and a host of other amazing people on our "sales side." I am particularly proud of the fact that our 2011 successes have led to Condé Nast investing more in Ars Technica. 2011 taught us that there are good and bad parent companies. We've got the best.

So that's the State of Ars. To make the site even stronger in 2012, we're looking for a pair of brand new hires, with more to come later in the year. If you've got experience in this business and want to join our team, we'd love to hear from you.

Two new Ars openings, to start ASAP

Here they are, new editorial jobs open effective immediately! These are our only two editorial openings at present, but we will post additional editorial jobs in March (no details before then, sorry). Also: if you're an online sales ninja based in New York City and would jump at a chance to be an Account Director at Ars, e-mail me!

Tech policy & business editor

This newly minted senior role at Ars is devoted to chasing down amazing stories about the collision of technology, business, and law/policy. Tech policy, intellectual property, broadband politics, H-1B visas, and the Almighty Dollar that drives them all are some of the most important forces shaping our technological future—and some of the most impenetrable. We want a sharp writer and editor whose insightful writing can carry on the Ars tradition of making these topics clear and fascinating to the Ars audience.

This role is primarily devoted to researching and reporting great stories, but it will involve editorial vision as you manage a small team of top writers devoted to policy and business beats. Key considerations include:

Minimum of two years' experience in the topic area, or amazing experience in a parallel area.

This is a deep-diving role. Obtaining and maintaining subject expertise in one or more areas is essential.

As part of the senior editorial team, responsibilities will include helping out with other projects as needed.

We have a preference for someone in the Bay Area, Chicago, New York, Boston, or Washington, DC but we will consider all applicants who are qualified. This is a full-time position with Condé Nast, is work-from-home, and includes benefits. Pay is negotiable, and commensurate with experience. We ask that all applicants use our quick online form.

West Coast editor

With an even split of writing and editing duties, our new West Coast Editor is responsible for being awake and available while your East Coast colleagues are off playing the slots. OK, there's more to it, but the gist of the job is supporting our writing staff by making them sound even more like the polished, grammatically correct writers they already are. The ideal candidate will have a minimum of a year's experience editing (preferably online) and a passion for news that shines through in published, professional writing. Here's the bullet list of qualifications:

An editor who can work through the daily pipeline of finished but unedited work.

A caring soul who can contribute to editing and production work on larger features.

A writer/blogger/statesman who can, at a moment's notice, whip up basic coverage of a breaking story off hours.

Last but not least: someone willing to trade Saturdays for weekdays, most weekends.

We have a strong preference for someone in the Bay Area, but we will consider all applicants who are qualified. This is a full-time position with Condé Nast, is work-from-home, and includes benefits. Hours are negotiable, but an ideal arrangement would include four weekdays until 7pm Pacific time and one weekend day. Pay is negotiable, and commensurate with experience. Interested? We ask that all applicants use our quick online form.

They don't report stories first, they report them WELL. Much more important.

Ha...kinda like the 'Apple' of tech coverage.

Well, I've been reading Ars for a long time, and I love whats happened with the editorial staff (so much that I know follow some of them daily on Twitter) and the trickle down results to the site itself.

Please keep digging to find the same quality characters and writers that you've already put on your staff.

I want to congratulate you on the quality of your publication. I've been a fan for many a year now. I fondly remember ditching class in high-school to read your site when I was 17. I'm nearly 30 now and still hold you in high-esteem. Keep up the good work. The quality of your content continues to impress me after all these years.

I hope you have some unpaid spots open... I've been working in NYC area for ten years in the financial world, so it would be nice to contribute some stuff in terms of editorials that reflect the nature of the beast here. That said, I can't be paid (much as I'd like extra cash) because then it becomes a conflict of interest. Though, I have always enjoyed writing and Ars makes that avenue more appealing.

I'm going into my 12th year as an Ars reader. I stumbled upon the site in 2001 when I was building my first PC and found your system guide. There is rarely a day I don't check the site. Here's to a great 2012! Keep up the good work.

When I was running the city numbers this morning to make that map image I was surprised to see how big London was. Not that it's a small, obscure city or anything, but until recently having a non-US city be our number one traffic source wasn't expected. I blame Peter Bright.

I'd like to personally extend the thanks to Andrew Maiorana and Chauncy Kerr if you guys are reading the comments, always a pleasure to work with you both. Pouring a 40 oz out for Jena Donlin, reddit better feel lucky!

Happy to be one of those Anchorage, AK dots. Haha. I think it would be a good idea to hire more than one gaming writer. As much as I love Ben, having one opinion occupy the overwhelming majority of opposable thumbs is a little tiring.

Been reading and following Ars since a few months after their launch. It was a much smaller, mostly collegiate, driven community. I'm glad to see Ars expand and am glad to see some of the OGs still around (Caesar et al) This is my second handle here since my old one was tied to some email that no longer exists (and I've not been able to do anything about it)

Anyway, here's hoping to many more years, filled with great content, commentaries (well, aside from the multi-account troll abuse) and geekiness.

Congrats to Ars, glad to see its doing well. I think on balance it has improved over the past couple years even if I wish they had more perspective about intellectual property issues.

The only thing about this post that bothered me was the ass kissing to Conde Nast. Their repuation is NOT good in the industry, and its a testament to the management of Ars that they've prevented CN from running it into the ground. Articles abound about how badly managed CN is in general, its hard to find anything good about them from anyone who has interacted with or worked for them for any signficant amount of time...

Oh, fantastic. Now I have to worry about the White House reading my posts.

More seriously: huge congratulations to all involved. I've been reading the site since...2000? '99? Somewhere in there, and it just keeps getting better (my occasional tirades at a couple redesigns aside). Despite knowing I've not contributed anything to its success, I can't help but feel proud to be a (tiny, inconsequential) part of this site.

Attaboys all around, and here's to another 14 years of the best tech reporting on the internet.

Edit to add: when I say "best tech reporting on the internet," I mean it. Ars is, quite literally, the only site I read every single day (or at least, every day I have internet access).

If I might be so bold, I'd strongly suggest looking at people with JDs for the Tech policy & business editor position. There are a ton of unemployed and/or unhappy JDs right now, many of whom have strong writing and editing skills. I think some of the articles that focus on legal issues could use a formally trained once over.

When I was running the city numbers this morning to make that map image I was surprised to see how big London was. Not that it's a small, obscure city or anything, but until recently having a non-US city be our number one traffic source wasn't expected. I blame Peter Bright.

I didn't even pay attention to London. Those aren't Ars readers; those are all Peter's Windows computers!

I'm always a little surprised that we don't see more sysadmin and/or programming positions opening up.

That's how you get rid of moonshark - bags of money to hardware and people.

As to CN, I'll second the "really???!!" comments. I know someone working in IT with them and the shenanigans sometimes verge on DangerMouse levels. Lots of middle management with no clue about much of anything outside of job security ordering sweeping changes that make little sense to anyone with a brain. And last time I checked most of their magazine sites allowed subscribing any email address to a plethora of lists with no confimation; that's so '90's.

Ken Fisher / Ken is the founder & Editor-in-Chief of Ars Technica. A veteran of the IT industry and a scholar of antiquity, Ken studies the emergence of intellectual property regimes and their effects on culture and innovation.